NELLIE BRUCE, water colour. NELLIE BRUCE After a successful venture with five sailing smacks, William Wesney Crampin had the foresight to invest in a new steam powered vessel which he had built by the Dundee Shipbuilding Company in 1898. He named her the NELLIE BRUCE, and she was to be the first of almost eighty ships owned by the Crampin family, ( and their subsidiaries ), in the years up until 1965, when the company was sold to Ross Group. NELLIE BRUCE was built for lining and worked the rich fishing grounds at Greenland and Iceland, mainly for halibut and cod. In September 1916, she was sold to the Grimsby fishing company, White & Willows. At 09.30 am, on the 30th October of that year, when line fishing off the South East coast of Iceland in forty fathoms of water, under the command of Thomas Bell, a German U-boat was sighted approaching from the West, in position 64° 30N 11° 57W, about three miles distant. Without warning, the submarine opened fire on the unarmed NELLIE BRUCE, with the first six shots falling wide of the vessel. Skipper Bell ordered the boat to be lowered over the side ( this was always kept full of provisions and drinking water during the war). With all fifteen crew in the boat, they pulled away from their vessel as quickly as possible as the U-boat closed in. They counted up to forty shots and when the firing ceased, their ship had disappeared. Skipper Bell set sail and headed for the land. At midnight he decided to anchor in about seventy fathoms of water using fishing line, but the wind began to freshen and it started raining heavily, so two hours later he decided to proceed towards the land which was sighted at daybreak. They ran the boat ashore and set off to seek help as they were all numb with cold and soaked through. They came to a farm house named Kross, where they stayed over night and were warmly received by the Icelanders. The following day it was decided to take them to Stödvarfjord by motor boat. The weather was so bad that it delayed them for another day. From here they were transferred to Faskrudsfjord before being returned home to Grimsby. NELLIE BRUCE. Off No. 108495 Steel screw steamer.(fishing trawler) Built February 1898, by Dundee Shipbuilding Co.,Dundee., Scotland. 192GRT. 112ft L, 21.1ft B, 11.1ft D. Triple expansion engine and one single ended boiler operating at 190lbs/sqin pressure, supplied by Cooper & Greig, Dundee. One Deck. Owners : (1910) W.W Crampin. Port of Reg. : Grimsby. GY 494 Skipper : (1910) W.Wright. 1905. New boiler fitted. 1916. 30th October. Sunk by gunfire from German submarine U-24 , off Beru Fiord, Iceland, The following information is available on uboat.net The submarine responsible for the sinking was the U-24 (Class U-23), commanded by Walter Remy. She was launched on the 24th March 1913 at Germaniawerft, Kiel. On the 26th October 1914, under the command of Rudolf Schneider, she was the first U-Boat to attack an un-armed merchant ship without warning. This was the SS Admiral Ganteaume, which was torpedoed but not sunk. On the 22nd November 1918, she surrendered, after sinking a total of 33 ships, excluding warships. She was broken-up at Swansea in 1922.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 18:58:12 +0000
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